Riley Doody ignites St. Ignatius’ pivotal third quarter

Riley Doody is one of the most pugnacious players to be found on a basketball court. He plays hard and with a serious edge.

He took a blame for Hinsdale South’s Brian Kern scoring five points in the closing seconds of the first half that cut an 11-point advantage to just six points at the break.

“I made a dumb mistake and then a dumb foul and that gave them a five-point swing,” he said.

He made it for that in the third quarter.

The St. Ignatius senior guard scored a game-high 13 points and added five steals, four rebounds and three assists as the No. 21 Wolfpack smashed the Hornets 59-36 in a Jack Tosh Classic second round game at York in Elmhurst on Saturday night.

Doody only scored two points in the pivotal third quarter. He was seemingly everywhere, his ballhawking defense creating multiple turnovers as St. Ignatius (9-1) forced 23 Hinsdale South turnovers and scored repeatedly in transition during a game-changing 13-4 run.

“Our whole mindset this year is winning the third quarter and coming out strong in the second half,” Doody said. “We felt like they couldn’t handle the pressure, and we work a lot in practice on finishing in transition and making the extra pass.”

The Wolfpack pressure denied highly-regarded 6-9 Hinsdale South center Barret Benson from taking over the game. Benson had only four post touches in the first half. Most of his shots came off of offensive rebounds. Benson finished with nine points, seven rebounds and three blocks as he also struggled with second half foul trouble.

“I played with him in the summer and he’s a very fundamental, good player,” Doody said. “He knows how to play. He’s got a lot of Division I offers and we didn’t want to let him get the ball on the low block. We were able to collapse on him and get him a little frustrated and into foul trouble.”

William Fleming converted the Wolfpack’s only two three-pointers in adding 12 points. Forward Martin Langhenry contributed 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals as nine different players scored for the Wolfpack. He also helped shut down the Hornets’ other top player, guard Iman Reynolds.

Reynolds scored the Hornets’ first five points. He was limited to just four points the rest of the game.

“Having a deep bench gives more players a chance to play and everybody gets into a rhythm,” Langhenry said. “For me I had to get up there and take away their best players and make their players handle the ball, and that’s what we were able to do.”

Forward Daniel Ogele added nine points and four rebounds for the Wolfpack. St. Ignatius will play Riverside-Brookfield in the quarterfinals on Monday.

Kern finished with seven points for the Hornets (5-5).